Explorer notes sneak peek

Explorer notes sneak peek

We don’t know why we are on the island and what other people have lived there. Sometimes we find dossiers of the various creatures that roam the island, or come across a recipe. However, the game will be including a lot more lore and exciting stories to find out what the reason behind the island is. This will most likely be done through explorer notes that you can find scattered around the island. In a earlier dev kit preview, we showed you some of the explorer chests and note meshes, but this time we got something way better: the actual texts that will be on the explorer notes!

Explorer Notes

There are currently four people that have will have their notes released in a future patch of the game: Elimisha, Gellia, Rockwell and Meiyin. Some of these notes are in a different language (two are Chinese and one is latin). If you know what is stated there, please let us know in a comment. We would be very happy to get everything translated so everyone can enjoy it. The notes are structured by their creators and you can click on them to get a bigger overview. Where possible, we’ve added the description of the pictures also in text beneath it.

Elimisha

Day 1 – I’m not sure where this place is, or who brought me here. My first instinct was to figure out where I was and how to get home. I was scared at first, but that went away when I saw them: creatures unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Dinosaurs, giant arthropods, extinct mammals not seen since the Ice Age. How I got here no longer matters; what is important is that I stay. There are others on the island: some together, some alone. Many look scared or lost; perhaps they will be friendly if I approach them with gifts?

Day 9 – I’m not sure where this ..? The creatures on the island are magnificent. I never dreamed I’d seen anything this amazing in my life. None of them are exactly what I expected them to be. Perhaps I should study them in detail? Yes, I think I’ll do that. I’ll list what I’ve heard other people call the creature, give it an actual name, and approximate its time of origin. Next I’ll find and watch the creature for several days, and briefly describe what I’ve seen. I think it would be a wonderful task while I’m here. And who knows, maybe others might find my work useful. Knowing which creatures are carnivores, or which creatures are aggressive, might save some lives.

Gellia

With help of u/Damasus222 and a user comment, we are able to provide you with a first translation of the Latin text. As you’ll see, not everything is translated perfectly and some things are indicated with a [?] meaning that it wasn’t always clear how to translate particular constructs. If you are able to improve parts of the translate, please let us know.

This must be Elysium. My father was wrong about this place. I do not see any ferryman, nor a three-headed dog. I do see monsters and savages. [what follows is much more loosely translated.] I saw men just as in life [?]. I do the same. What else can we do? Most have left the coast, and run deep into the woods. Some build huts or houses. Some rest, having killed a monster [?]. And he [they?] have taught me. I have built a home. It is stronger to build out of fruit-tree wood [?]. I know there is good stone nearby. And after building with it, it is joined into walls [??]

I need a safer house. The walls took longer to build than I expected. A wooden fence kept monsters away. It did not stop people. It was broken within days. I was robbed. The walls are 12 feet tall now. No one bothered me for several days. Someone still got over the wall. He killed me, that I remember. I woke up at the beach again. Is not an illusion, I died and came back to life. My house is still standing. The murderer robbed the house. He also taught me a lesson. I need taller walls. The house must be stone too. Need to find metal soon. Tamed monsters can tear down stone. I’ll start tomorrow.

Rockwell

My allies have requested that I write a memoirs about my time here. My name is Edmund Rockwell. I am one of the most known men on the island, and one of the few who feels save from marauders. I live in a well fortified base on an atoll south west of the main island, where I do my experiments. I understand the flora of this island more than anyone alive, and I choose to share my knowledge. People write down my formulas. I hear they’re called Rockwell Recipes. I only ever wrote them down once, but people made copies.

The most common fruits on the island are easily the berries. Three berries in particular seem to be the most prolific. They have wildly varying appearances, but their chemical makeup is very similar. It is not their similar chemical and nutritional makeup that surprises me most, but their perfect coloring. What are the odds that the three most common berries on the island are primary colors of pigment that are perfect for making almost any color of dye? And what are the odds that the other two common berries are white and black? It almost seems like these were placed here by some higher power to help us.

Meiyin

Thanks to u/rantnul we are able to provide you with a first translation of both the Chinese text. If you come across any mistakes, please let us know.

When I woke up four nights have passed. I start to decided which path i should take. If I return, I would definitely look after my family (my family would question me?); if I die, I wish i could die helping others. Demons and monster are everywhere, and they’re all very fierce. I was so afraid I couldn’t even sleep. I tried to take detours everywhere, but I couldn’t avoid them. The plantlife are also strange as I couldn’t recognise any of them. Though I’m a thousand miles from home, I’ll need to find my way home eventually. This is the heaviest burden of all.

I’m afraid that going back home would not be as easy as i thought. I walked along the sea for several days, then I stumble upon a boat that will give me a way (??), or one could say I earned my way through. Is there not (??). I went through a few fishing villages. A couple times I even went pass castles, but no one was willing to help me. Most of them threatened to kill me. I realized I was on an island when I went through the same village twice. In the following days when I was walking along the shoreline a lot of people tried to rob me, others tried to kill me – or even worse. I killed them. From one of my attackers I salvaged a strange weapon called the ‘rifle’. I used to have a pike as my only form of self defence. Now I’ve got a sword, armour made of monsters’ exoskeletons and a rifle.

Related

12 Comments

I have a very rough translation involving a lot of googling for the Latin:

It is required that this is Elysium. My father would be different from this. I do not see any riverman. No three-headed dog. I see monsters and stranger people(nation?). I see people like this life. I do the same. What else can we do? Most run to the beach, I leave the trees. Some people are trying to their tents or houses would sell them. (Some people are trying to sell their tents or houses?) under the control of sleep, the body of the dead monster (Some sleep under the body of the dead monster). He taught me better. I have a house. (Lorem? No translation, probably left over from lorem ipsum text) fruit trees to build stronger. I found that really good rocks nearby. And they are committed to do.

It’s worth noting that this typeface is kind of hard to read exactly, and some of the letters are very similar, which may contribute to further errors beyond crappy google translate results.

Thanks for the reply. We’ve updated the Latin translation with help of your comment and another user from Reddit. Now it is at least a lot easier to understand what the message is, even though it isn’t translated 100% correctly.

Possibly the Strange force that put them/us on the island of ARK are studying our differences in religion, culture, strategies, how we function, etc. But MAYBE, JUST MAYBE they put our player on the island to teach us a lesson, they seem alien due to their architecture(towers) and technology, we would not be on the island for their amusement, due to them implanting something in our arm to help us, supply drops, things like that, I’m trying to figure this out, hopefully soon we will have more notes, until then, let’s enjoy the island of ARK 😀

From assumption on the knowledge of Elimisha (knowing the mammals were from the Ice Age). She seems to be from more modern times. The exact place is unknown…. but given the difference of the continents and places, I would guess modern America. Scientist from the attitude of her wanting to observe and share her findings, rather than just survive like the others (outside of the alchemist Rockwell)

That is true… Also, there is a frozen body in a very very small ice cave in tundra, and then she does know about ice age animals, maybe that could be her frozen body! If she knows the arctic, then she lives in the tundra of ark, the body shape seems feminine, however there can be easy weight lost, any way, that body seems to be something more than just some random characters, it seems like there’s something up with it, tonight I’m going to inspect or try to find it, and see what I can do from there.

I am VERY excited for the next Rockwell note, i would love his work, and that beard thou! Also, can anyone tell me the best way to get the recipes? I got some from some high level Rex and some argens but that’s all, any tips or suggestions?

The Elysium Fields are Greek and were more like heaven. It is where those related to or chosen specially by the gods would go after they died, mostly the righteous or heroic. They would “live” there in peace and bliss doing the things they most enjoyed doing during their mortal life.

We use (third party) cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site, you agree to the use of these cookies. For more information, please refer to the Cookie and Privacy policy by clicking the 'Read More' button.AcceptRead more